If Hou Junji did not die, Li Ji's starlight would become dim, and the first chancellor in the early years of The Gaozong Dynasty would probably not necessarily be the eldest grandson. Even, Hou Junji's name will become one of the most dazzling symbols in history.
All this changed with hou Jun's conspiracy and counter-case. Li Shimin "slashed the horse with tears", and the moment the butcher knife fell, Hou Junji repented without a door, Li Shimin had no peace of mind, and the taste of it was shattered by the drum beat of the execution.
After Hou Junji's conspiracy was exposed, Li Shimin personally interrogated hou Junji, and he said to Hou Junji: "I don't want you to suffer the humiliation of a knife and pen official, so I decided to personally investigate." ”
In the face of evidence Hou Junji's inability to argue, this result disappointed Li Shimin, how he hoped to find some reasons from Hou Junji's mouth that could be justified. Therefore, Li Shimin pleaded with the ministers with a hard scalp: "Hou Junji has made great contributions to the state, and I want to ask for a life for him. ”
The ministers were indignant: Such a great sin is intolerable in heaven and earth, please your majesty to kill Hou Junji to show the Great Law!
Li Shimin sighed and came to the prison to send Off Hou Junji: "I came to say goodbye to you today, and from now on, I can only see your portrait." After saying that, Li Shimin's tears fell like rain.
According to the regulations, Hou Junji was to be deprived of his home, and Li Shimin was extrajudicial, pardoning his wife and a son so that someone could give Hou Junji a blazing incense.
Widowhood is more than the heart of the emperor, but Li Shimin is so devoted to Hou Junji, so why did he want to rebel? Why did Li Shimin try to forgive Hou Junji outside the law?
According to historical records, the inducement for Hou Jun's conspiracy to rebel stemmed from his corrupt behavior after destroying Gaochang, and he was impeached and examined by the imperial historians, and he was dissatisfied.
In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, the king of Gaochang, Ju Wentai, rebelled, and Li Shimin ordered Hou Junji to be the commander-in-chief of the Jiaohe River March and lead a large army to conquest. It was an extremely arduous expedition, Gao Changguo was seven thousand miles away from the Tang Dynasty, passing through a desert with no grass for two thousand miles, and since ancient times, it has been able to cross this desert of death. Ju Wentai said: Even if the Tang army can cross the desert to reach my city, their military food will have at most 20 days left, and I will fight back against them as easily as picking up dried fish!
But the Tang army not only crossed the Jedi of "winter wind cracking muscles, summer wind burning", but also destroyed Gao Changguo with the pressure of Mount Tai. This feat of a large-scale legion expedition to the western region can be said to have never been done before.
After the victory, Hou Junji was triumphant and ordered Le Shi to remember the merits and triumph of the class. But when his feet had just stepped into the court, what awaited him was not a knight, but a pair of cold shackles!
It turned out that after Gaochang destroyed the country, Hou Junji looked at the treasures in the palace of Ju Wentai and the beautiful women full of exotic styles, and his heart could not help but start to itch, he privately robbed a group of Gaochangguo civilians, and privately swallowed a large amount of treasure.
Upward and downward effects, the generals will also shake their arms when they see the boss doing this, grab it if they can, and steal it if they can. Hou Junji did not dare to stop this situation when he saw this situation, and eventually it turned into a large-scale plunder of Gao Changguo by the whole army.
After Hou Junji was arrested, Cen Wenwen advised Li Shimin: Since ancient times, expeditions have been "heavy rewards for defeating the enemy, and they are invincible and manifested."; now Hou Junji has not been rewarded for his great deeds, and it is easy to give the people of the country a pretext of "recording their deeds and leaving behind their deeds"; at that time, Li Guangli and Chen Tang had old examples, and both of them were pardoned and enfeoffed; most of the generals were "less cheap and more greedy"; military law emphasized "making wisdom, making courage, making greedy, and making fools"; and "the greedy invite them to seek their own benefits" Is the method of using soldiers by saints, and it is not worth making a big fuss about. Therefore, His Majesty should pardon Hou Junji and greatly commend him for his merits.
Li Shimin suddenly woke up and ordered Hou Junji to be released, but he did not give him the rank of knight. Perhaps Li Shimin thinks that the merit is two, or maybe he wants to deal with it coldly, in short, Hou Junjibai has a hard trip.
If Hou Junji was tossed around in prison and then released, he would immediately have a feeling of rebirth, but the release was too fast, and he thought that "it is not my fault, the wrong is the emperor", so he should apologize to me and give me a bonus.
The result was no apology, no bonus, not even a certificate of award, so Hou Junji was "uneven".
The egg cracks open, and sooner or later maggots will grow, and two things make a good egg a rotten egg.
First, Zhang Liang was transferred from Shangshu of the Ministry of Works to the governor of Luozhou. Originally, this matter had nothing to do with Hou Junji, but he inexplicably believed that Zhang Liang was sent from the central government to a place, belonged to exclusion, and should have pity on himself with the same disease, so he took the risk of finding Zhang Liang.
What is even more jaw-dropping is that Hou Junji unabashedly made his attitude clear: You and I are all people who have been excluded, how can we turn against each other together?
Zhang Liang also took a clear stand and turned around to inform Li Shimin. Li Shimin groaned, "This matter is a secret conversation between the two of you, there is no circumstantial evidence, it is not easy to handle, right?" Zhang Liang said in a syring.
Logically speaking, even if Hou Junji wanted to oppose, he would not be so rash, but since Zhang Liang dared to report under his real name, he was not afraid of confronting him, and he would definitely not make something out of nothing. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish whether this matter is true or false, and I guess it is very likely that Zhang Liang followed Hou Junji's words and provoked Hou Junji's bottom card.
Li Shimin was very city-bound, and since there was no circumstantial evidence, he should have not happened and still waited for Hou Junji as before. In the same year, Li Shimin set up the Lingyange Meritorious Service List, and did not forget to list Hou Junji among them.
Perhaps Li Shimin thinks that Hou Junji has nothing more than suffered a little grievance, has resentment in his heart, and vents, and you Zhang Liang ask for credit.
The second thing happened, completely pulling Hou Junji out of the water. At that time, Li Chengqian repeatedly angered Li Shimin, and the position of prince was in jeopardy, in order to change the unfavorable situation, Li Chengqian took a look at Hou Junji: This guy's face was indignant, wasn't it the foreign aid that God gave me?
Coincidentally, Hou Junji had a son-in-law named Helan Chushi, who was a Qianniu Wei in the tai womb, so Li Chengqian secretly befriended Hou Junji through Helan Chushi.
Hou Junji, who was accumulating more and more venom, suddenly became enlightened when he saw Li Chengqian: Finally found a vent, wasn't this melon baby the gripper who launched the new Xuanwu Gate change?
Hou Junji belonged to the small character generation in the Qin Dynasty palace at that time, although he also had military achievements, but he belonged to the nature of playing soy sauce, and he was embarrassed to take out his hand, and the event that really made him stand out was the change of XuanwuMen.
We look at the change of Xuanwumen from the consequential theory and think that this is a coup that must be won, but in fact, it is a very dangerous and very low chance of winning!
Although there were many generals who followed Li Shimin at that time, there were only a dozen people who were really willing to participate in the incident, and even Fang Xuanling and Du Ruyi were half-hearted. However, Hou Junji is Li Shimin's staunchest supporter, because he has been by Li Shimin's side since his debut, and the second master is his root.
Since then, Hou Junji has soared into the sky and will enter the picture.
But at present, Hou Junji is not thinking about these things, but the "application development" of xuanwumen's change: since it is so easy to change the sky, why don't you come again? If this time is successful, will Datang have a second person besides my Hou Junji?
Therefore, Hou Junji stretched out his hand and said to Li Chengqian "emotionally": These hands have been used by His Highness since then!
If the first resentment is a seed, saying "the opposite" to Zhang Liangming is the germination of the seed, Li Chengqian is the fertile soil for this poisonous bud to grow into a poisonous seedling, and the "experience point" of the change of XuanwuMen is the fertilizer of this poisonous seedling.
The Buddhists talk about cause and effect, and Li Shimin probably couldn't have dreamed that his original sins would actually respond to his head!
Another reason why Hou Junji was so confident was that his position in the dynasty was very important. At this time, Hou Junji, Wen, and the official Shangshu participated in the decision-making of the imperial government, equivalent to the prime minister; Wu, ranked as the general of the Left Guard, was the only general besides Li Jing to lead an independent army to achieve a great victory.
Just when Hou Junji and Li Chengqian were plotting closely, a guard of the Eastern Palace named Qigan Chengji denounced Li Chengqian, and Li Shimin quickly cut through the chaos and arrested Li Chengqian and Hou Junji. Helan Chushi saw that the situation was not good, and immediately donated money to Li Shimin and denounced his father-in-law Hou Junji.
Since the evidence of Hou Jun's conspiracy to rebel was conclusive, why did Li Shimin intercede on his behalf? It was so mournful, like a performance.
In fact, if you can walk into Li Shimin's emotional world, you will find that he did not perform at all, and Hou Junji made him sad and sad!
As we said earlier, Hou Junji is Li Shimin's confidant, and there is one point that is not very noticeable, but it is very critical: Li Shimin has actually been focusing on cultivating Hou Junji and cultivating effective auxiliary ministers for the third generation of Li Tang monarchs.
It has always been rumored that Hou Junji was over seventy years old when he died, but in fact, it was a misunderstanding, he was a true Shaozhuang faction. The history books do not give Hou Junji's date of birth, but the New Book of Tang clearly states that he was "less involved in the qin king's shogunate", and from this detail, Hou Junji should be three or five years younger than Li Shimin, and he was about 45-48 years old when he was killed.
This is very important, we know that the young heroes of the early Tang Dynasty were "rare species", and by the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, most of them were dying of old age, such as Li Jing was 72 years old, and the "young" Li Ji was also 49 years old.
Among these heroes, only one Li Jing can really stand alone, and the others are all giving Soy Sauce to Li Shimin and Li Jing. Some people will ask "Li Ji"? It is true that Li Ji also once single-handedly picked the big beam, but it was after Hou Junji's death that he was selected by Li Shimin as a substitute, and only then did he have the experience of independently leading the army and marching on Xue Yantuo.
Therefore, Hou Junji's expedition to Gaochang is of great significance, and it is actually Li Shimin's deliberate cultivation of Hou Junji. Later, Li Shimin also asked Hou Junji to learn the art of war with Li Jing, which clearly showed that Li Shimin was devoting his efforts to making Hou Junji a future protector of the country.
It can be said that Hou Junji is like a child who hurt the hearts of his parents, deeply stabbed Li Shimin, and also made Li Shimin's years of hard work in vain. Now you should understand why Li Shimin later fell so close to Li Ji, right?
It is said that the emperor is supreme, but who can understand the pain in the emperor's heart? Who can see the wounds in Li Shimin's heart?
Hou Junji's narrowness destroyed himself, otherwise where would li ji shine later? Even if the eldest grandson is unscrupulous, I am afraid that he can only look at his back, right?
In fact, just when Hou Junji walked a road to the dark, someone sounded the alarm bell for him, and this person was his wife. She vaguely felt the crisis from Hou Junji's abnormal behavior, so she advised Hou Junji: "You are a prince of the country and a minister of the state, what do you really want to do?" If you accidentally do something to apologize to the emperor, then turn back to the shore, at least save a life. ”
Unfortunately, Hou Junji had already been blinded and plunged into the abyss.